JJJJJJJJ
This is Sayori's entry for the writing contest. Note that this is technically unfinished, but this is the snippet that will be going into the competition. I may or may not continue it after the competition is over. PART ONE It started as a joke. This mob was no new or sudden thing. He and C418 had made this ridiculous creature in MS Paint while intoxicated years ago when coming up with a mock "creepypasta" version to the ender dragon. They spent the whole night looking into community creepypastas across the internet, most of them appallingly amateur and not remotely scary. The result was a fake mob meant to make fun of the other stereotypical fake bosses. A week later, C418 made matching music to fit the creature, which they dubbed JJJJJJJJ, or "J8", because that was the file name for the picture. Fast forward to 2017. After reminiscing on some of the funny things they had done before over a text conversation, C418 jokingly suggested to his friend that they insert the picture and the music file to see how long it would take people to find it. It was just an inside joke at first, but the thought of it was funny enough to carry out. Since it was not an actual new mob, the idea was passed. JJJJJJJJ.png and aaaaaass.ogg were placed in the "mobs" directory, although the update it was attached to did not contain any message about the new files. = = = https://instaud.io/1NPB (audio clip) = = = Things went as normal. Sure enough, within 24 hours, the stupid photo and sound file were posted to various community forums and wikias by avid fans who had found it while looking for the update's new additions manually. People immediately began to debate what it meant. Most of the older members of Minecraft dismissed it as a peculiar joke. Within almost no time at all, content creators were already making fake backstories and creepypastas about J8. The whole ordeal was insanely funny to MoJang, especially C418 and his friend. The whole thing went viral. Hundreds of emails were sent desperately asking for more information on the mysterious mob. Realizing they could take advantage of all the attention this was getting, C418's friend, known by Thomas Parsley, suggested that they make this into a sort of game. At random intervals of time, C418 would post new audio clips and pictures to his Twitter that were intended to be vaguely associated with J8. Of course, he had no actual idea what the "story" was going to be behind this fake mob. He was just doing it for fun and wanted to see what the community would come up with trying to piece his nonsensical "clues" together. It should be noted, however, that it was C418 who was doing this, not Thomas. Thomas drew all the shoddy pictures and agreed to let his friend post them. But something C418 didn't realize was that Thomas expected him to say the pictures were not drawn by him, but rather Thomas. He forgot to credit him at all in these posts. This became a downward spiral very quickly in their conversations. Thomas demanded at least some sort of nod that C418 did not draw the pictures. C418 refused, saying this was apart of the game, and it would be more interesting if it was left ambiguous. Thomas got unexpectedly angry at this and went to his twitter to declare that he was the artist for the pictures being posted, at the same time also claiming ownership of the whole J8 thing since he came up with the idea - C418 only made the music. But there was a problem. The details got foggy. Both of them had been drunk at the time. Now it was unclear who had exactly come up with what, since neither of them could completely recall what they said to each other. But Thomas did not budge from his spot. This sudden interpersonal drama exploded when C418 decided to draw his own pictures and make separate music files to continue the whole clue game in spite of Thomas. Thomas responded to this by posting his own pictures, declaring them separate from C418's and to be considered the "true" clues for J8. He downloaded an audio program called Audacity just so he could make sound files, too. The Minecraft community closely observed this with a mixture of confusion and excitement. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Meanwhile, MoJang remained silent. Things escalated when these sound files and pictures turned petty. Hidden messages were placed, such as slowed down recordings of C418 speaking, or writing a sentence or two in an extremely light gray color. With it came many blind defenders for both sides, who contributed to the fire by making petty pictures in conjunction with their respective "leaders". Wars started. Death threats were hurled. The worst of it all, however, happened when a real-life anti-Thomas convention was held in Houston, Texas. The announcement was made 2 weeks prior by the groups' most prominent spearhead and supporter, known by his screen-name "PrinceGengar", or simply Gar. The post was made on a Minecraft forum dedicated entirely to J8, which had synonymously been associated with "the J8 controversy". Immediately death threats flooded the thread, mixed in with the most rabid of fans. While the thread was closed and these threats investigated by police, the convention was still scheduled to run at its intended date. Several hundred people came. The original purpose was merely to hang out, discuss what they thought of J8 (and its ever-growing plethora of spinoff creepypastas), and Thomas Parsley. But the show was hijacked by a radical C418 supporter, who brought a loaded gun to the event and held everybody hostage for ten minutes. Nobody was harmed, for the police had came in time to arrest him. It ended three hours early. In the wake of this terrifying fiasco, MoJang finally responded by releasing a patch that removed the joke files from the game and made a public announcement that this had to stop. C418 promptly removed all related J8 content from his Twitter, while Thomas deleted his Twitter account entirely. C418 did not hear anything from him again. The fun and games were over, and this controversy went down in infamy, serving as a lesson to the fans of Minecraft and to MoJang itself. INTERMISSION Barely a month had passed after this announcement was made when Thomas Parsely's death hit the news. According to the papers, he was t-boned from the driver's side by a motorcycle going 88 mph. He was pronounced dead on arrival. C418 made no comment. The community went into a mixture of mourning and hatred. The controversy was rekindled, considering Thomas never got the proper recognition for his work. But despite all the many emails and messages C418 received from fans demanding he say something about the ordeal, there was nothing but radio silence. Nothing. At this point, J8's popularity began to crash. It fell into the same lines as Sonic in the sense that it was recognized as something apart of a growing "cringe culture", for too many people were basing their creepypastas off of it at once - not to mention that every time somebody mixed some of C418's clues into their personal interpretations for J8, people would get angry, since C418 was believed to be (and was) the original aggressor by refusing to credit Thomas. The whole concept of J8 was too strongly associated with all the terrible discource between its creators for it to ever get back up to its feet again. It had a good run while it lasted, receiving tons of fanart and interesting theory videos, but ultimately needed to be put to rest for the sake of everybody's mental health. Everything went quiet for a while. PART TWO The year is 2019. Minecraft has steadily declined in active users and mod makers, although J8 is not entirely to blame. For the unfortunate mod-maker known by his screen name Luxe, motivation was running short. Sitting at his desk in his room, he ran one shaking hand through his hair and rubbed his aching eyes. The time read 2:03 AM on his PC. On the plastic mat he kept on the ground were several empty cans of Coca Cola. He had hit a brick wall with one of his old side-projects. Most of his works never even made it to casual conversation. He couldn't risk being made fun of over them again, not like last time. A loud beep startled him. He flinched and looked up at the screen. He had received a friend request on Discord. There was no profile picture and the name simply read "TP". Oh yeah, the volume was up for that youtube video, he thought. He hesitantly clicked the window open, still feeling his heart racing. Screw it. He accepted it. It was probably someone who saw his tag on that thread he went to an hour ago. As soon as the window was pulled open, the TP person began typing. | hey your that mod maker right? Oh god, they used the wrong "you're". Luxe internally sighed but decided it would be rude to correct a complete stranger. || uh yea | i have something i need yuo to do for me. Was he trying to sound intimidating or something? It sure wasn't working. || well first i need to know who this is? Silence. | thomas parsely A second passed. Luxe was confused. The Thomas Parsely was dead. This was just some little kid, likely a fan of J8, coming to beg him for something. Come to think of it, he hadn't heard that name in a long time. He laughed under his breath and quickly typed out a response. || well what do you want , "thomas" | i need you to make a Mod with jjjjjjjj in it. Yep. He wasn't surprised. || sorry kid but no thanks ...Silence. One minute. Two minutes. Luxe scoffed and minimized the chat window. This wasn't worth his time. Then, ten minutes later, the message notification popped up in the lower righthand corner. || I'll pay you to do this, Brian Andersen. Category:Creepypastas Category:Unfinished! Category:Mod Sayori Category:Dark Category:Minefictions Competition